Amcrest 1080P WiFi Camera Indoor, Nanny Cam, Dog Camera, Sound & Baby Monitor, Human & Pet Detection, Motion-Tracking, 2.4Ghz Only, Pan/Tilt Wireless IP Camera, Night Vision, Smart Home ASH21-B

Unboxing:
The new Amcrest ASH21 is a beautiful made little camera comparable with those low budget indoor cameras such as Wyse, smartthings, nest cam indoor, EZVIZ, Ring cam indoor. It feels well made and comes with: power adapter, 78” power cable (micro usb), screw mount, and a small bracket that I believe is a wall mount that attach to the bottom of the camera, really weird location for a wall bracket; especially if it is design to swing to the sides, mine didn’t lock all the way in. Camera has an Ethernet connection for faster connection.

Setup:
Instructions to setup the camera via app are simple and well explained. More subjects can be found on the Amcrest support site. One thing that I couldn’t find anywhere was how to insert the SD card, even on the site there is not any instructions on how to do it. The only way I found to do it without manually forcing the lent is to tilt the lent all the way up via the app then you would see the access to the SD card slot and reset button.

Amcrest Home App:
The app overall has been working fine and the setup process was simple, you can setup motion schedule, human detection and smart tracking (feature that I was really impress). I had to format my 64sd card on my computer to FAT32, just make sure the whole SD card is on FAT32. I had it formatted a few times under FAT32 and it was not found by the camera. I realize 46mb of the SD card were still under NFTS. I had to remove that partition and reformatted under FAT32 and the camera was able to find it.

Motion detection is great an even better with the Human detection option in that way my dog won’t trigger the camera. Tracking is really cool especially if you have it setup in a hallway with low traffic. My only biggest complaint with the whole Amcrest Home App is that you cannot download the footage via the app, make it really inconvenience that every time you want to share a footage you have to physically remove the SD card and put it in the computer.

Compared to Wyze (WYZEC2) – Kasa Cam – Ring Indoor cam – Nest Cam.
After testing the camera for 31 one days I can come to the conclusion that the Amcrest Ash21 is an amazing deal for the cost, has basically the same features as the more expensive cameras but for a lower cost. The more expensive cameras have for sure a better OS and more smart features, such as the face recognition on the nest. The 2 way communication is loud enough and clear to hear and speak to. This would be my to go camera for any indoor use. Smart enough to track people and move the lens around to follow the person, clear image during the day and night.
At the end everything comes down also to you ecosystem, if you have an all Ring or Nest setup maybe it could be better for you go with the same brand because you can setup automation within, instead if you bring an Amcrest it won’t do anything to trigger your Ring’s lights. Wyze can be a cheaper choice if you only indoor cameras and that’s it. On the other hand if you have and Amcrest NVR you can add this cameras and even the Amcrest doorbell to it for constant recording. YMMV.

I am new to Amcrest Smart Home, which is what this camera is optimized for, but it took less than seven minutes from the time I opened the box and powered on the camera, to the time I was seeing live video in the Amcrest Smart Home app. Though I’m generally not a fan of “Smart Home” apps, the Amcrest app is intuitive and easy to understand. I especially like that they have English words under the icons, so that I’m not expected to try to figure out what each icon means. That’s a huge plus.

There is about a 3-second delay in the video when viewing the app over Verizon 5G. The delay is about 2 seconds when I’m on my home wifi (the same wifi as the camera is on). Both of these delays are quite normal and common for products like this. There is about a 6-second delay (on Verizon 5G) when pressing the “Talk” button in the app, until the speaker turns on in the camera. If I needed to speak to someone in range of the camera right away, to prevent a problem or alert them to something, six seconds is a LONG time. I understand the reasons why delay is inherent in devices such as this, but ut would be helpful if Amcrest were able to reduce that delay through firmware adjustments. The “Listen” feature is immediate when I tap the speaker icon, but it takes two seconds for spoken audio to play in the app. The audio sync with the camera appears to be perfect, so that’s very good.

I don’t have much need for the baby monitor function, but running it through its paces, I can see where it could be very valuable. I thought being able to set the loudness threshold on the microphone was a very nice touch, to keep the app from notifying you if the baby is just moving around, but not in distress.

The rest of the features, Full Screen, HD/SD Quality, Snapshot and Record all functioned as expected. Video quality is really good for a WiFi camera, especially when viewed over Verizon 5G. However, I don’t think it’s any better than my other Amcrest cameras…which isn’t really a problem, since my more than 25 Amcrest cameras all look great. I have this one set to 1920×1080, 20FPS, Bitrate 2048, and it’s smooth and clean looking, even in low-light conditions, which is something I’ve come to expect from Amcrest cameras.

Though the Smart Home app works great, I will be using this camera primarily with BlueIris, and it was a bit challenging to get the settings just right for use with that software. However, I knew that going in, because the Amcrest marketing materials state that the camera is optimized for the Amcrest Smart Home app. Frankly, I didn’t expect it to work at all with BlueIris, so it was a nice surprise when it did. I do wish pan/tilt worked inside BlueIris, but I can always use the Smart Home app to position the camera when needed, so that’s not a dealbreaker.

The packaging was almost all cardboard, with just a couple of sections of foam to protect the top and bottom of the camera. I LOVE this about Amcrest cameras. There is a minimum of plastic/foam in all their packaging, and that is a huge positive to me. The Quick Setup Guide was very simple and succinct, understandable since the app really walks you through the setup. I would have liked to try the Smart Tracking feature, but I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. I pressed the button that matched the icon in the manual, but it didn’t track me. I won’t be using that feature, so it’s not a big deal. But it would be a good idea for Amcrest to include that in future editions of the Quick Setup Guide. Rather than just describing the feature, they could actually instruct people how to turn it on.

My overall impression of this experience is basically the same as I’ve had with all my other Amcrest cameras. They just WORK. To not have to spend hours fiddling with a camera is a very good thing. Especially one like this, where you maybe want to throw it in your luggage and have a camera watching your hotel room or VRBO while you’re out.

If you’re looking for a great quality camera for use as a nanny camera, doggie camera, or just add it to your collection of home security cameras, this camera is a great addition.